What a beautiful and energizing email and perspective.<br>I'm very very happy that all this is happening,<br>:-)<br><br>Anne<br><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">2011/10/13 adam <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:adam@flossmanuals.net">adam@flossmanuals.net</a>></span><br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">hi,<br>
<br>
So we had a fantastic 3 day meet up in berlin (Oct 3,4,5). We hired a large apartment for everyone to stay in and then hired an equally cool venue (a cafe in a park which used to be no-mans-land). It turned out the cheapest AND most comfortable way to do things.<br>
<br>
Attending were:<br>
Janet Swisher<br>
Tomi Toivio<br>
Elisa de Castro Guerra<br>
Laurent Giacobino<br>
Tuukka Hastrup<br>
Aleksandar Erkalovic<br>
Luka Frelih<br>
Mick Fuzz<br>
Michael McAndrew<br>
Sacha van Geffen<br>
Helen Varley Jamieson<br>
Adam Hyde<br>
<br>
So, before we go one...a few announcements. First and foremost, part of the meeting was to choose a new board for FLOSS Manuals. It is now in place and consists of:<br>
Sacha van Geffen (Chair)<br>
Janet Swisher<br>
Tuukka Hastrup<br>
Elisa de Castro Guerra<br>
Eric Kluitenberg<br>
<br>
This is *big* news for us. Its a great board and signals a new era for FLOSS Manuals. The board will introduce themselves to the list over the days...I am extremely happy to see this board in place. It is a great selection of people that know FM for a long time and from many different perspectives. I'm looking forward *very* much to this new era with this new board.<br>
<br>
Other outcomes from the meet - I am appointed Chief Executive, a fancy and overly formal title which means pretty much that I do what I do now but perhaps not all of it (shedding some of the sysadmin and other tasks I have been doing by default). Essentially that means I keep my role with 'staying the ship' and am trusted to play somewhat of a leadership role. You might read this as 'more of the same' from me ;)<br>
<br>
So the meeting put in place this board and we covered a lot of other terrain including :<br>
* discussing new part-time staff roles<br>
* establishment of FLOSS Manuals ORG<br>
* strategic discussions about Booki<br>
* organising a new series of events<br>
* establishing a budget for the next 6 months<br>
* establishing new admin list<br>
<br>
and more...<br>
<br>
If you wish to read the full minutes (35 pages) of the meeting please visit the new FM.org (<a href="http://www.flossmanuals.org" target="_blank">www.flossmanuals.org</a>) site....and check under the 'staff & meetings' tab (or get direct from <a href="http://www.flossmanuals.org/sites/default/files/minutes_Feb_2011.odt" target="_blank">http://www.flossmanuals.org/<u></u>sites/default/files/minutes_<u></u>Feb_2011.odt</a>).<br>
<br>
So, kicking it off - big news for us is that we have some new part-time staff. First - we have a new part-time Fundraising Manager. I am astounded that we have been lucky enough to have Laurent Giacobino (formerly of Internews) join us in this role. Laurent is working approximately half time for FM for the next 6 months. We are working now to get funds in the bank to keep him, and FM in general, going after that period. Any tips for fundraising for Laurent please send them to <a href="mailto:laurent@flossmanuals.net" target="_blank">laurent@flossmanuals.net</a> (or [name]@<a href="http://flossmanuals.org" target="_blank">flossmanuals.org</a>, this works for all fm email addresses eg <a href="mailto:laurent@flossmanuals.org" target="_blank">laurent@flossmanuals.org</a>, <a href="mailto:adam@flossmanuals.org" target="_blank">adam@flossmanuals.org</a> etc).<br>
<br>
Also Camille Acey is onboard for 5 hours a week working on PR for FLOSS Manuals. We are also extremely lucky to have Camille onboard. Camille is based in NYC and also works on <a href="http://questioncopyright.org" target="_blank">questioncopyright.org</a> (if you don't know that site you should!). Any press contacts (we need them all!) please send my sleuth or sail to <a href="mailto:camille@flossmanuals.net" target="_blank">camille@flossmanuals.net</a><br>
<br>
John Curwood is now going to be managing the FM admin side (he currently does this) AND the online (<a href="http://lulu.com" target="_blank">lulu.com</a>) FM book shop - updating all the books etc...so any help needed send an email to this list and i am sure he will respond quickly.<br>
<br>
Tuukka Hastrup and Luka Frelih share the role of technical managers. Both extremely capable and we are lucky to have them...tech issues? send them to the discuss list (this one) and call them out by name.<br>
<br>
And...the new FM ORG I hear you ask? Yes, a further outcome of the meeting is that we have decided to create a new entity - <a href="http://www.flossmanuals.org" target="_blank">www.flossmanuals.org</a> -this is the home of the umbrella organisaton for FLOSS Manuals. The board is appointed to oversee this AND (at present) the English FM. In time however we foresee (and it will be milestoned) creating a new foundation for FLOSS Manuals English. We believe that the English FM should not be the 'default' home of FM but each language community should be equal.<br>
<br>
Each FM language community will be its own legal entity (as is true for the French FM) and the umbrella org will assist each language community with resources such as fundraising expertise, PR, tech support etc.<br>
<br>
So FLOSSManuals.org is effectively where you will find people like Laurent and Camille, (increasingly) me and the board.<br>
<br>
We have this site in place already in scratch form (<a href="http://www.flossmanuals.org" target="_blank">www.flossmanuals.org</a>) - it is running CiviCRM (thanks to Michael McAndrew) and we aim to work this site into shape over the next weeks.<br>
<br>
Next- We are going to start running a series of FM conferences known as Sprint Conferences. We have a reputation for delivering a lot of content despite small resources (especially with Book Sprints) and the Sprint Confs will push this further. Sprint Confs will build upon the model in place for the Google Summer of Code Doc Summit happening next week (co-organised and facilitated by FM, GSoC and Aspiration). At this event we will run 4 parallel Book Sprints (KDE, OpenStreetMaps, Sahana, and OpenMRS). With future Sprint Confs we aim to explode this model and push our doc output to another level - the first to happen perhaps as early as March.<br>
<br>
The Sprint Confs are not just a random thing we wanted to do but fulfil two other purposes (we hope) - fundraising and a strategic move to further push FLOSS Manuals into the role of 'enabler' and 'context provider'. Fundraising is reasonably self explanatory but the last two items may sound esoteric.<br>
<br>
In essence they mean we need to focus on helping people make docs about free software. That means 'enabling' that process where ever possible, and providing the contexts for this to happen. We should never be a team of professional doc creators or some such doing 'our own thing' - if we did get a load of cash from fundraising it should be put to helping people create docs and getting the most out of the docs. Those people might include you or me and our doc needs/wants, a disparate group rallying around a manual 'in' FM, or a group working on docs within established free software project etc. Sprint Conferences fit into this role perfectly, as do Book Sprints, the current website, this list etc...we aim to help people make free documentation about free software and provide the spaces to do it, not to employ teams of fulltimers to do it for you...<br>
<br>
Essentially we realise that FM has achieved a lot already and our past (and present) could e categorised something like:<br>
* content building<br>
* platform building<br>
* community building<br>
<br>
We now think we have come a long way in each of these. Building content and community is always going be close to the heart of FM but we should should only be in the business of making tools for as long as it takes to make the ones we need. We have done a good job with Booki and it might almost be time to find a partner org to help us with managing its development. Now its time to move into this new phase of 'context provision'. If this still seems unclear to you just hold on to the rails, it will become clearer in time as we start actioning some of this and refining this objective.<br>
<br>
ok...so. At the meeting we also outlined a budget, it is detailed in the minutes. Essentially we are spending money to lift FM to a new level (not just to keep going as we are now). We don't have a lot of money so we are spending it wisely but needless to say the next 6 months for FM is very critical.<br>
<br>
For this reason we have also put the board in place and we are starting a new admin list for managing some of these activities. Anyone can join the admin list but if you join it you are expected to *do something* for FM. Something more than you currently do. Same with the board, they are there to push FM along and so if you have the time and energy to volunteer to make things happen then join here:<br>
<a href="http://lists.flossmanuals.org/listinfo.cgi/admin-flossmanuals.org" target="_blank">http://lists.flossmanuals.org/<u></u>listinfo.cgi/admin-<u></u>flossmanuals.org</a><br>
<br>
Currently on that list are all those that attended this very special FM meet up. Each has made a commitment to get stuck in. All those attending also have FM email addresses (<a href="mailto:janet@flossmanuals.net" target="_blank">janet@flossmanuals.net</a>, <a href="mailto:sacha@flossmanuals.net" target="_blank">sacha@flossmanuals.net</a> etc)...so if you want one of those then come to the next meeting....<br>
<br>
Ok, believe or not that is a *brief* summary. I will leave it to the board members and those present to highlight anything they think is important that I might have missed or under emphasised.<br>
<br>
I can only say that I am astounded at the quality of people we had at this meeting - it further highlights what an amazing community we have. The discussions were amazing and we (FM) came out of it very strengthened I believe. Not only in terms of the (fantastic) board and new part-time staff but the meeting is the start of a very strong vision for FMs future and a very strong commitment from those that were there to help achieve it...we hope you will also pitch in as much as you can...<br>
<br>
:)<br>
<br>
adam<br>
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-- <br>
<br>
--<br>
Adam Hyde<br>
Founder, FLOSS Manuals<br>
Project Manager, Booki<br>
Book Sprint Facilitator<br>
mobile :<a href="tel:%2B%2049%20177%204935122" value="+491774935122" target="_blank">+ 49 177 4935122</a><br>
<a href="http://identi.ca" target="_blank">identi.ca</a> : @eset<br>
<a href="http://booki.flossmanuals.net" target="_blank">booki.flossmanuals.net</a> : @adam<br>
<br>
<a href="http://www.flossmanuals.net" target="_blank">http://www.flossmanuals.net</a><br>
<a href="http://www.booki.cc" target="_blank">http://www.booki.cc</a><br>
<a href="http://www.booksprints.net" target="_blank">http://www.booksprints.net</a><br>
<br>
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</blockquote></div><br>